Propping Up Obama — The left-liberal establishment is in crisis at the moment. They can't make up their mind between desperately trying to prop up Obama, and giving up on him and increasing their distance. Maureen Dowd has given up, judging from her brutal column today, “The Golf Address.”

Wrong Way Nation — Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is running for president again. What are his chances? Will he once again become a punch line? I have absolutely no idea. This isn't a horse-race column. — What I'd like to do, instead, is take advantage of Mr. Perry's ambitions to talk …

Experts' eyes turn to Colo. — “Wow! You'd have to be high to re-elect a guy like that.” — That is comedian Bill Maher's take on Republican Rep. Mike Coffman's campaign to win a fourth term in a suburban Denver district. Smoking marijuana is legal in Colorado but even stone-cold sober …

As Obama returns, advocates look for executive action — Expectations are high that President Obama can move ahead with controversial executive actions now that he has returned from his vacation. — Obama's two weeks on Martha's Vineyard were plagued by dual crises, in Iraq and in Ferguson …

On Ferguson, no words from Hillary Clinton — Hillary Clinton ignored reporters' questions about the racial conflict in Ferguson, Missouri, on Sunday at the end of a book-signing event in Westhampton Beach, a vacation enclave near her rented summer house. — Clinton, the potential 2016 …

Local, state Democrats go rogue — In scattered state capitals and city halls around the country, a new group of elected officials is telling the federal government to take a hike: Up-and-coming Democrats. — Challenging federal power in sometimes-theatrical ways has been a hallmark …

A LETTER FROM JIM: All letters Jim wrote to his family during his captivity were confiscated by the jailers. So, Jim devised a better approach this last June: he asked a fellow hostage about to be released to commit a letter to memory. Very soon after his release, this hostage called Diane and dictated what follows.

A Funeral in Ferguson — Two weeks after the killing of Michael Brown, we have become painfully familiar with his parents through their public appearances and television interviews, their faces drawn, their sorrow apparent. — Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, constantly dabbing tears from her face …

Kidnapped US journalist freed in Syria — Peter Theo Curtis is handed over to UN peacekeepers in Golan Heights nearly two years after he was captured. — An American journalist kidnapped nearly two years ago has been freed in Syria and handed over to UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights …